Jan 22, 2017

Lifeblog: New year, same me (January 2017)

Greetings, one and all!

We may be reaching the end of January, but here's still taking the opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year! Here's hoping you have a wonderful year ahead, with a lot of happiness, prosperity and good health!

It is indeed yet another clean slate to start all over again, regardless of how we fared during the previous year. Whenever we approach the end of the year, I always used to feel very gloomy about it - and this dates back to my teenage years! While every person of my age group was out there in a festive and happy mood, I was mostly deeply sad and sort of pessimistic about the year that went by. Yeah, I was kind of a pointless philosopher even during my teenage years, as weird as it may sound. *rolls his eyes* And that mindset stuck in my head ever since for all these years...

...until this year, thankfully! Despite 2016 having been a pretty awful year for me in many ways, I made the conscious decision of keeping myself calm and genuinely happy during the month of December, and it ended being the month where a lot of things were moving forward, thankfully! "Fortune favors the brave" and all that, I guess?

And as we are slowly approaching February, I feel very zen and satisfied at this point in my life. Things may be moving really slowly, but I'm just being thankful that they finally are. In terms of career, health, and various other aspects, a lot of things are FINALLY falling into place... Even if it took me an entire year to get things going.

The whole "new year, new me" mindset (which people often make fun of, as seen in memes like the one below) may be "annoying" in many ways, but it is a good place to be, as you enter a new year. I personally stopped making resolutions, but I still believe in the concept of "dreams", and "ambitions". At least it feels like there is less pressure in this sort of mindset... The whole "external factor" (whether you call it "luck", "God", "destiny", or whatever it is for you) always has a major impact on these sort of things - so even if you put in your best (which you should, either way!), when things fall apart you tend to feel down because you "broke your resolution".

Whereas if you simply make a list of "wishes", or "dreams", which you keep as a note, you can have the luxury of fulfilling them, to the best of your ability. It sounds much lighter and less "rigid" than a "resolution", for me personally. Think of it of as a "bucket list" for 2017 - try to tick as many as you can, before the year ends. Has a very fun and happy vibe to it!

Now I can imagine some of you are entering 2017 after having faced hurdles, failures, personal tragedies, or just mere disappointment. If it's indeed the case, I'm truly sorry... I happened to watch a bunch of Disney movies off late, and as conveniently comforting it was for me, there were a lot of deep quotes that really surprised, inspired and moved me. So keeping in mind this context, here's one for you from the Lion King:

"Oh yes, the past can hurt you. But the way I see it, you can either run from it... or learn from it!"- Rafiki, The Lion King (1994)